Shortly after noon, as Sunday services at Memphis' abundant churches conclude, another gathering of the faithful is getting underway at a restaurant popular for its soul food.
"Hi, welcome to the Four Way," owner Patrice Thompson greets every customer, often in quick succession.
Many dressed in their Sunday best, the diners are a diverse crowd — a far cry from decades past, when the folks here were nearly all African-American.
The walls of the 72-year-old restaurant are covered with photos of celebrities who've eaten here: singers such as Aretha Franklin and Isaac Hayes, who would drop by after recording sessions at nearby Stax Records, and some of the biggest names in the civil rights movement: Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and, most notably, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
"He'd come in every time he was in town," Thompson said, though she's too young to have ever met the famous preacher.
Just as the Four Way was a regular stop for King, so, too, was the Lorraine Motel, where he would stay during visits to Memphis. He last checked in on April 3, 1968. The next night, King was dead at age 39, felled by an assassin's bullet as he stood on a balcony outside his second-floor room.
The Lorraine — and some might say the nation — would never be the same. Within hours of King's murder, Loree Bailey, who owned the motel with her husband, suffered a stroke. She died five days later. Even as the motel fell into disrepair, the building remained a shrine to the slain leader — the beginning of the movement that eventually would allow visitors to walk in King's footsteps.
Half a century later, commemorations of King's profound impact on America are underway. The National Civil Rights Museum, which incorporates the old motel, leads the charge.